In recent years, my work has been a response to the entire process of making a print. However, the final outcome is not always an ink-on-paper image. Folded paper sculptures and collaged reliefs have become more prominent, along with emergence of my printing plates as discrete works of art, which are sometimes framed and displayed alongside the print.
My interests lie in the intricasies of surfaces and the materials and marks that make and change them. This focus applies to my prints and, increasingly, to the plates that they are made from. In my traditional collagraph printmaking method, these textures translate into a variety of tones and embossings in the resulting print.
In common with other print-based members of The Five, I too have been looking for ways to ‘escape the (glass) frame’. In the lockdown periods, I had no access to a large-format printing press. This presented me with both a challenge and an opportunity – how to produce print-based work without a press? My approach was to re-examine and exploit every stage of the making process to try to come up with something new. For example, I experimented with pre-creasing paper in multiple directions, coating it in metal leaf and burning some areas with a paint stripper gun. Later, the creases provided myriad ways of folding the sheet. These became what I call ‘Flexures’.
Website: sinclairashman.com
Instagram: @sinclairashmanprintmaker
